Two weeks ago, I counseled a young woman. (I don’t like the sound of “counseled”. Spoke with, yes I spoke with her) She’s only a few years younger than I am o, see me always feeling old. Anyway, she was faced with a dilemma and the confusion was tearing her apart. I’d come out of my house and found her crying right in front of the gate. Long story short, she had to make a decision and she didn’t know how. So I sat her down and told her quite matter-of-factly that the tears wouldn’t help her one bit, so the sooner she quit crying the better. She started to tell me what she had decided to do, but I told her not so fast. Decisions should not be taken without a great deal of thought, and honestly this is something my younger self would have appreciated if she’d had someone to tell this to her, because I tend to be quite impulsive. It’s one of my greatest weaknesses. But this isn’t about me.

One of the greatest gifts given to man by the Creator is the power of choice. He made us, He loves us, He wants the best for us, but he won’t choose for us. It doesn’t matter what He has created us to be, we are by and large a product of our own choices. This is a liberating truth, isn’t it? That whatever you want to be is completely up to you. That you choose. That even God, as all knowing and all powerful as He is, respects your choices. I don’t know how this strikes you, but it is mind blowing to me.

Yet, this power of choice is arguably man’s greatest undoing. You would think that being entrusted with something so powerful and decisive would make us careful and always aware of the responsibility that this gift carries. That we would see this gift for the grave burden that it truly is, and that every time we make choices, we would do so with every sense of personal responsibility, remembering that that each one of us is personally responsible for the outcomes of our lives. Sadly, this is not always the case.

There are some people who somehow take nothing for granted, see nothing lightly, and approach life quite gravely. They weigh actions carefully and live with such precision that they rarely make mistakes, and so they probably have nothing to regret, ever. If you’re like this, please know that you’re truly blessed. Hmm, but there are those of us who tend to do before we think, and as a result have a few things on our list of regrets. Lol, we’ve had God bail us out of several situations in the past because of this, but it’s okay, it comes with the “Father” territory.

I told the young lady that day, not to make any hasty decisions. That whatever she chose to do, she would live with the consequences of that decision for the rest of her life. When I said that, I saw the look on her face go from disbelief to comprehension. She’d finally got it. And it’s true. If we thought of it that way all the time, that we’d live with the consequences of those choices for the rest of our lives, maybe we’d be a lot more careful with the choices that we make.

One vital advice that’s given to entrepreneurs is to “start with the end in mind. I think we could draw from it too. What I’m trying to say is, only you know what your life should be. You must have a clear picture of what you want your life to look like, and at no point in time should you ever, take a decision or make a choice, that will jeopardize that picture, even if for just six seconds. I guess this is what it means to be driven by purpose. To have your sights so set on the prize that everything you decide to do with yourself is centered on getting you closer to that prize, whatever it is. On the off chance that you’re unclear about the direction of your life, only Jesus can help you there lol. Consult Him today.

To bring this much closer home, I have recently made choices with my body that have caused me to break down and as I write this, my blood is shot full of medication, and several locations ache. But everything comes together to remind me that I am personally responsible for the outcomes of my life. That my choices will define my experiences, a collection of which define my entire life. People will always have an opinion about my life, but they don’t get to live with the consequences of my choices. Only I get to do that. Looking at it this way, it reminds me how careful I must be, all the time. Growing up teaches you so much, doesn’t it? Oh my younger self! Hehehe.

It’s time for another round of medication, but let me leave you with this picture quote:

Like this:

In the bid to increase the quality of our young people (a move Nigeria desperately needs), a group of experts have come together to organise a 1week Youth Camp for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18. Talk about catching them young, hehe.

Youth camps have been around forever, I know, with several institutions organizing them for the young people within their systems. This youth camp however, I’m told it’s the first of its kind, first because it doesn’t seek to correct what’s wrong with the children, but to expose and harness what’s right with them. Wow! They’ll be showing them how to develop their strengths among other fabulous things. I’m very interested in this because it saves these young people the time for experimental experiences, and hopefully shapes their futures early, because within that age bracket, they are at their most impressionable phase ever.

I’m also told Saheela Ibraheem is one of the guest speakers at the event. Saheela is currently a Neurobiology Senior at Harvard University. She was recently named one of the World’s 50 Smartest Teenagers, and U.S. President Obama met and commended her on this feat at a reception celebrating Black History Month.
At just 15 years old, Saheela Ibraheem was accepted into Harvard University, which makes her among the youngest students ever to attend that school. Saheela was accepted at 12 other colleges that same year, including MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Chicago.

Wow! Double wow!!

Saheela Ibrahim with President Obama and his wife, Michelle.

Hopefully these young ones will be tapping her anointing. They better. Because this is a fantastic, history making event, I’ll be bringing more info from time to time, so that you can encourage the young ones you know to attend. Spread the word, will you? Lol.